With so many online ‘communities’ today, you may find it hard to keep up with all your usernames and passwords or even where you already have ‘profiles’. I’ve heard those who are less social networking addicted than myself lament “Why can’t there just be one place for all of this stuff?”. I can sympathize with their frustration as they log on to three different places to keep up with friends, family and co-workers because they can’t get them all to just join the same one. However, many of us have profiles on multiple sites because they serve different purposes and uses to us.
Perhaps you’re asking yourself what in the world I’m talking about right now. I’ve seen many people who post the same things everywhere they post. The same status updates, the same pictures, the same links so basically if you’ve seen one of their profiles you’ve seen them all. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that exactly, there’s something to be said for consistency I suppose. Besides if you are one of those people who only have multiple accounts because you can’t get all your ‘peeps’ to sign up in one place then that suits your needs. For me, I like to use different sites and accounts for different things.
Facebook, well that’s pretty much friends and family stuff. I don’t use it to meet new people, I use it to keep up with people I already know. Sure I do have a few of those people who are somewhere between a professional connection and a friend on there too, but for the most part that’s where you’d find pictures of my friends and family and status updates about the next vacation I’m planning or what I’m doing this weekend. It’s set to private and I don’t add random total strangers. It’s my personal profile, the place to let my hair down…within reason of course!
Then there’s LinkedIn, which is all about business. It’s the button down professional side of my life. My professional credentials are on there and I use groups and my current connections to meet new business connections. It’s a place to get to know people who I can help to get ahead or vice-verse. I visit group discussions and read or post and invite people who’s contributions to the discussions with whom I’m impressed or agree to join my network. I am able to find people within my current industry or in industries of interest to me and expand my horizons.
I actually have two twitter accounts but both are primarily used as a way to read and/or share news and blogs with others and find new people with shared interests. One I use for professional work related things and the other is mostly about the non-work things I love like the Kentucky Wildcats and classic muscle cars.
The most recent addition to my regular sites is Brazen Careerist. Which is kind of like LinkedIn and Twitter got together and had a baby or something. It’s great for not only sharing an idea/article/blog but discussing it as well. Settings allow for you to have your blog and your twitter feeds display on your profile, which is a nice way to pull it all together.
Beyond those basics I’m on several other more topic specific sites and message boards. Some are professional, like Multifamily Insiders, while others are purely recreational, like Cats Pause, but each serves a particular purpose in my online world. How about you? Do you use different social media sites in different ways or are they all the same to you?
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